AISHnet Survey - Academy for International School Heads

Can a Lecture Be Experiential?
While in graduate school, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Jasper Hunt my
professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. We were filling out conference proposal
forms for an experiential education conference. He commented about the "check box" on
the application form requesting us to identify which portion of the presentation would be
experiential and which portion would be lecture based. Jasper shared that he felt this was
counter productive to defining a quality presentation. He argued that a good lecture CAN
be experiential.
I have reflected many times on that comment when attending (or delivering) a lecture or
lesson. Recently this topic came up in my work with both classroom teachers and
corporate trainers who struggle with the need to cover a great deal of curricular content in
a short time while in a structured classroom or boardroom setting. These educators
struggle to balance their need to cover the content and their desire to teach more
experientially in order to engage learners and create lasting lessons.
This past summer I attended two different keynote lectures at educational conferences
that were very engaging and created lasting impressions with me. I reflected on that
conversation with Jasper and wondered: What was it that made those lectures engaging?
Would they be considered “experiential”?
When I compared the presenters’ actions with the principles of experiential education, I
found the educators did incorporate many tenets of experiential education and brainfriendly
teaching strategies. And they did so in what might not usually be considered an
experiential format for teaching: a giant lecture hall and a power point presentation.
Here is what I noticed:
Emotional Engagement:
When the speaker is knowledgeable and passionate about their subject it comes through
regardless of the format of their lesson. This kind of energy is contagious and can’t help
but initiate some sense of relevancy and buy in from audience members. When Dr. Hunt
lectured on the subject of experiential education philosophy or ethics, his interest and
passion around the subject were obvious and infectious. I remember being drawn in by his
enthusiasm and class time flying by.
Recently I worked with a group of high school teachers who are trying to teach more
experientially in an atmosphere with a strong emphasis on test scores. I challenged them
to reflect on what it was that first ignited their passion around the subject area. If they
are in touch with that passion and find a way to communicate it, they will find a
way to stimulate some of that same passion in their students.
Relevancy and transference to real life:
The speakers infused personal stories that the audience could relate to, both about
themselves and others. They also asked audience members to reflect on a related personal
experience of their own.